Tuesday, December 6, 2011

When I last spoke to Su Beng he said that he'd be taking the Taiwan Independence Action Motorcade to Tai Dong in December in a show of support of Tsai Ing-Wen, the Democratic Progressive Party Presidential candidate who will be campaigning there.

Here's the travel schedule of the Taiwan Independence Action Motorcade (TIAM) for the next few weeks:

Sunday, December 4, 2011

On November 24th Su Beng went to pay his respects to Ong Jiao-Dong, the President of the United Formosans for Independence. Mr. Ong was also the founder of the Taiwan Youth Association in Japan which published the Taiwan Youth magazine.

An article written (in Chinese）about his visit recently appeared on MSN here.

In this article Su Beng is quoted saying that Mr. Ong dedicated about 50-60 years of his life to the Taiwan independence movement and that there are probably about only about 5 others like him, still alive, who have dedicated their lives to the cause.

He also said that the overseas Taiwan independence movement first started in Japan in the 1950s where a provisional government of the Republic of Taiwan was formed. Around that time, Mr. Ong founded the Taiwan Youth Association, which was a precursor to the United Formosans for Independence. Later he and someone else formed the Taiwan Youth Magazine. In 1959 Su Beng was asked to work with them on the Taiwan Youth Magazine. The magazine helped spread the Taiwan independence movement from Japan to the U.S.

Su Beng described Mr. Ong was an open-minded man. Su Beng admitted that while the two of them had different opinions and used different strategies, they were both working toward the same goal, which was independence for Taiwan.

The author of the article asked Su Beng: As the elders of the Taiwan independence movement pass away will the Taiwan independence movement lose its roots or direction?

Su Beng's response was that he doesn't think so, as long as the island of Taiwan exists and the people of Taiwan still have their will, it will continue. Though Su Beng said that he may one day soon join Mr. Ong up above, the Taiwan independence movement will not just disappear.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

On November 9, 2011 a surprise music concert birthday event was planned for Su Beng's birthday. It was held at the Howard Civil Service International House (公務人力發展中心福華國際文教會館) in Taipei and about 700 people were in attendance.

I'm sure it must have been an enjoyable event for Su Beng because he is quite the music lover. In fact, he told me that as a student at Waseda, he was quite the classical music aficionado. Anytime a new classical music record was released he'd immediately run out to buy it. He said he had a collection of about 8,000 records at the time. Once he even pawned a personal item for cash so that he would have money to purchase records.

A photo of the book cover, Conflict & Challenge: Lifestory of Su Beng (衝突與挑戰: 史明生命故事 作者蘇振明), which is an authorized Chinese language biography of Su Beng written by Professor Su Jen-Ming. The book also includes illustrations drawn by the author, Professor Su who is a professor of art.

On November 7th there was a small press conference at the ART (Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan) base announcing a surprise music concert/birthday celebration event for Su Beng, who's birthday is actually on November 9th. Several artists and their works of art honoring Su Beng gathered there that day.

Further details and explanations on the photos below will follow at a later date.

Where I am able, I will offer a brief explanation of the people in the photos below.

Bin Hong, Su Beng's assistant.

Wen-teh Lin, an artist friend of Su Beng who sculpted a bust of Su Beng. I met Mr. Lin in 2007 and wrote briefly about him. To read that post and to see photos of the sculpture which was still a work in progress at the time, click here.

Professor Tsay, Chairman of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan (ART).

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Su Beng celebrated the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival at the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan (ART) base in Taipei on September 9th. It was a potluck celebration or all the volunteers and supporters of the ART. They expected about 100 people to show up.

It was a very merry occasion.

Professor Tsay, Chairman of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan (ART), Su Beng and Bin Hong.

Su Beng sang a song called "Dancing Girl" (舞女), which was popular in the 1980s. People of Su Beng's generation would be familiar with dance halls which were once popular in Taiwan, decades ago. In these dance halls were "Dancing Girls" who's job it was to entertain and dance with the mostly male patrons. These women were in effect like escorts. The lyrics of "Dancing Girl" describes the sadness of a dancing girl who has to dance with several different men a night. The song is a metaphor for Taiwan's which has fallen under the control of a string of foreign colonial rulers.

He also sang "Taiwan Nationalism" (a song that he himself wrote) and danced.

About Me

Since 2004 I've been documenting the life of Su Beng- a Taiwanese nonagenarian Marxist revolutionary and lifelong Taiwan independence activist, who spent 7 years working undercover for the Chinese Communists, tried to assassinate Chiang Kai-Shek, and wrote "Taiwan's 400 Years of History." Follow along as I unravel and explain the elusive contradictions of this man's life story. It's my job as Su Beng's biographer to tell this story of one man's idealism, passion, heroism, and humanism. I believe it is a story that will inspire and inform. As a first time biographer, I'll also share some of my reflections on my role as Su Beng's biographer.